While Albanians riot over failed get-rich-quick schemes and Bulgarians watch their currency lose value by the hour, further north in the region, Poles and Czechs take pride in economies that are among the best performing in Europe -- East or West.
Almost eight years after communism began to collapse, the former Soviet Bloc countries have divided sharply between those -- like Poland and the Czech Republic -- that bit the bullet of reform early and have now largely made the transition to market economies, and desperate cases like Bulgaria, Belarus and Tajikistan that are paying a steep price for putting off changes.
In this four-part series, RFE/RL senior correspondent Kitty McKinsey reports on how the economies of these two transition countries became so strong, on the early successes of two entrepreneurs, on the entry of credit into a cash economy, and on the weaknesses of the pay-as-you-go pension. |
![[ rfe/rl logo ]](/images/new/article-logo.gif){kind=logo}
![[E-mail this page to a friend]](/images/newsline/email-icon.gif){kind=icon}